Rude, Nude and Crazy?
Posted on March 9, 2010
Last week, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel had to step down because he had been bedeviled by ethics problems, including a failure to pay his taxes. That wasn’t the direct reason he stepped down, but it wasn’t just his little junket to the Caribbean that ended his tax-writing career.Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, tried to install her fellow Californian Pete Stark in Rangel’s place, but the rest of the Democratic Caucus, sensing that perhaps putting a crazy person in charge of the most powerful committee in Congress, told Pete to pack it in. They decided to go instead with Sander Levin, who isn’t very exciting, but certainly isn’t crazy.
Late last week, rumors started flowing about the imminent resignation of an obscure New York Congressman, a guy named Eric Massa. Massa was most notable for being a Democrat who voted against most of President Obama’s agenda.
Massa, who apparently got drunk at one of his staffer’s weddings and then made a complete ass out of himself, found out the hard way about the wonderful world of Washington.
If you get drunk and make an ass out of yourself at a wedding, you are among a fairly large percentage of the American public. If you get drunk at a wedding and you make an ass out of yourself, and you are a Democrat, and you oppose the President’s health care bill and the President is really, really desperate for his health care bill to pass, you could find yourself in big trouble.
At least, that is Massa’s story, and as far I know, he is sticking to it.
Perhaps the most bizarre part of this whole tale is the scene where a buck-naked Rahm Emmanuel accosts a showering Eric Massa in the member’s gym, a place, apparently, where it is common practice to search out votes in the strangest places.
Who is the crazy one here? Eric Massa, who may have dreamed the whole thing up? Rahm Emmanuel, who last week was portrayed in the press as the only smart one in the Administration, and who this week is portrayed as the Whip who will go to any lengths to get his votes? Rush Limbaugh, who is making Massa an unlikely hero of the right? Or any American outside the beltway, who may think that this whole thing is on the level?
The Democrats, who are well-known for their spirited defense of the gay agenda, seem to take special delight in using a person’s possible homosexuality against them. Does anyone seriously believe that if Massa was harassing a female staffer that he would have been drummed out of the Congress as fast as he was with allegations that he harassed a male staffer?
Somebody is playing some serious hardball here. I just can’t figure out who it is.